Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Mining

Uranium exploration and mining

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Uranium concentration in US soils

The exploration and mining of radioactive ores in the <!--del_lnk--> United States began around the turn of the <!--del_lnk--> 20th century. Sources for <!--del_lnk--> radium (contained in uranium ore) were sought for use as luminous paint for watch dials and other instruments, as well as for health-related applications (some of which in retrospect were incredibly unhealthy). Because of the need for the element during World War II, the Manhattan Project contracted with numerous <!--del_lnk--> vanadium mining companies in the American Southwest, and also purchased uranium ore from the <!--del_lnk--> Belgian Congo, through the <!--del_lnk--> Union Minière du Haut Katanga, and in Canada from the <!--del_lnk--> Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited company, which had large stocks of uranium as waste from its <!--del_lnk--> radium refining activities. American uranium ores mined in <!--del_lnk--> Colorado were primarily mixes of vanadium and uranium, but because of wartime secrecy the Manhattan Project would only publicly admit to purchasing the vanadium, and did not pay the uranium miners for the uranium ore (in a much later lawsuit, many miners were able to reclaim lost profits from the U.S. government). American uranium ores did not have nearly as high uranium concentrations as the ore from the Belgian Congo, but they were pursued vigorously to ensure nuclear self-sufficiency. Similar efforts were undertaken in the Soviet Union, which did not have native stocks of uranium when it started developing its own weapons program.